McCOHN MUSCLE BLOG
If you are a newbie to exercising, you know the effort and energy required to get past the first couple of days! Fatigue, soreness, and hunger are the first-few factors that might bring down your motivation to continue the exercise regime. But, this initial discomfort is short-lived. If you manage to get past these discomforts, you will begin to see positive changes in your body that will eventually enhance your health and quality of life and keep you happier.
It has been a long time since we’ve had the Client of the Month and 2021 felt like a good time to start back up. We’ve had some strong performances at McCohn Muscle to close out 2020. We had four elite performers in our 28 Day Buddy Detox Challenge. We have people training for special competitions and half marathons. We’ve also had a couple of people endure car accidents and come back stronger than they were before. It’s amazing to see what people are doing here.
We are going to kick off 2021 by celebrating the success of Faiza Haddad. Her mission and IG handle go hand in hand, @tobefitinayear She wanted to drop weight and improve her overall health. Her journey was not easy. At the beginning we just wanted her to be consistent with her training, exercising at the gym three times per week. After a few months she knew she had to make changes to her eating habits for better results. She was eating too many carbs, not eating at the right times, and consuming too much processed food.
Faiza hired help from a nutrition coach to improve her relationship with food, learn how to eat properly and make better decisions. Altogether with her nutrition program and McCohn Muscle Training she has dropped 34lbs, strengthened her body, and decreased her body aches. She also feels less stressed and has more positive energy everyday.
Her goal moving forward is to drop 15 more pounds and tone and strength her arms. She also plans to use what she has learned from her nutrition program to continue her journey of improvement. I asked her what is one piece of advice she would give someone that has been contemplating whether they should start a training program. Her reply:
“start ASAP!!! The sooner you start the better you will feel!!! Find a meal plan that fits your life style that will help get to your results faster. If you have an off day with not going to the gym or not following your meal plan just restart the next day. Consistency is KEY! Results are not overnight, be kind to yourself and your body.”
Congratulations on all the amazing work Faiza. Many people can draw inspiration from your story.
Heather’s story began back in 2013 when she started having some pretty serious health issues. After several appointments with doctors and specialists she was diagnosed with ulcerative colitis. UC is an autoimmune disease where the immune system basically attacks the digestive system, cause inflammation and as you can imagine, some pretty crappy symptoms (yes pun intended haha).
There is no cure for UC, but for most people the disease can be managed through medication, healthy lifestyle, and diet. However, since the disease can't be cured, it's very common to experience flare ups where symptoms become pretty bad as well as periods of remission with little to no symptoms. It was pretty devastating to learn in her mid 20's that she would have a health condition that couldn't be cured, and that it would affect every aspect of her life.
For a long time she was just getting by, but she didn't really have the motivation or energy to do much of anything. Fast forward to January 2018 when she reluctantly signed up for McCohn Muscle's 6 Week Transformation Challenge with Q. McCohn after her coworker (shout out to Astrid) convinced her and another friend to sign up.
Suad, Heather, and Astrid = Team Dynamic
She was nervous, but also excited to see if the exercise and accountability for healthy eating would help her feel better. Long story short, it did! She felt healthier in 2018 than she felt in a long time- she lost weight, gained muscle and her UC almost seemed like a bad dream.
At the time she was trying to run in several 5Ks throughout the year, and she really wanted to push herself to run a half marathon. It was something she never thought she could do, but her year of working out with Quentin gave her the confidence that she could.
More struggles came while training for her half marathon. Things started getting really stressful for her at work, and the stress from work combined with her ramped-up training schedule caused her UC symptoms to creep back in.
She was in denial since she had been feeling so good the past year. She thought that things would get better quickly, but they did not. During her half marathon she felt so sick she ended up missing her goal by almost 7 minutes. She knew it should have felt like an accomplishment that she pushed through and finished, but she wasn’t feeling the fact that she didn’t achieve something that she had trained so hard for. Then there’s that internal depression or sadness of being sick again after a year of feeling so great. On the outside she looked fit and healthy, but inside she was slowly falling apart.
Things took a turn for the worse on July 4th 2019 when she went to the ER, where she was then admitted to the hospital for 5 days. During this time she lost over 15lbs (including most the muscle she had spent the last year building), and she was told that she would have to have surgery to have her colon removed if things did not get better soon. She was put on a new treatment plan and sent home to work on getting healthy again.
Her road to recovery took a lot longer than she was anticipating. Even as her digestive issues were getting better, she started dealing with severe joint pain and swelling. The iron in her blood dropped to the point where she was close to needing a blood transfusion. Her hair started falling out, and the steroids she was taking cause her to gain 20-25lbs. It was one thing after another and she struggled mentally with getting back to the level she was in the past year.
Even though Heather endured these health challenges, she did not give up on her dream of being the healthy, fit, happy girl from 2018. She knew that if she could get her health back on track, she could have another chance to find that girl again. She could have a another chance to reach her half marathon goal. Even through all the sickness, she was determined to do all she was physically able to.
For a long time, she was only able to take short walks around the block, but her walks gradually got longer and longer until she felt confident enough to go back to the gym. It definitely wasn't easy- there were several weeks where she almost passed out during every workout. The key is: she never gave up.
At McCohn Muscle she approached every workout with intention. She never knew when her health issues would flare back up, so she pushed herself every day to do her best, and she was super motivated to come back stronger that she was before.
She saw the mental focus pay off in November when she got a new 5K personal record that was almost 2 minutes faster than her previous record, and then she beat this record by 30 seconds a week later.
Ask Heather what her journey has taught her and she will likely say that she appreciates how fortunate she is. She takes the time to count her blessings and focusing on the positive helped her get through some pretty rough times. Also realizing in a big way what a negative effect stress can have, it's easier for her to not get worked up over little things.
We have teased her about becoming a Personal Trainer because she is always encouraging others to do and be their best. While training at McCohn Muscle she was able to
experience the relief that she is accomplishing her goals
understand that living with an ailment would not stop her from reaching her goals
learn that illness is temporary, and good health is not something people should be willing to give up on
Now she is back to her dream of being the healthy, fit, happy girl from 2018. She is finding that healthy girl again. She has another chance to reach her half marathon goal, which she is training for now.
This is exactly why we are passionate about health and fitness. There is someone reading this that is struggling with their health just like Heather was, and perhaps you may have even given up on the idea of being that healthy, happy person you once were. Heather is proof that with an ounce of determination, you can change it all around. Let McCohn Muscle help you find the confidence you need. Hit the link below and get more information about our 42 Day Transformation Challenge.
https://www.mccohnmuscle.com/sign-up
Last month, June 2019, Mo hit his one year mark training at McCohn Muscle, the top training facility in Worthington, Ohio.
There had never been a trainer that lasted longer than three months with us, so naturally Mo has created more IMPACT on our fitness family than anyone else other than Q.
From his first full day as a trainer, Mo has brought a unique set of gifts to our training family. First he is sculpted better than the ancient Roman and Greek statues, and it shows his obsession of putting himself through grueling workouts and practicing disciplined nutrition. His physical appearance represents the way a trainer should look.
His workouts and training style don’t just come out of thin air either. He learned different training styles from working at a gym and observing how serious competitors and power lifters came in and maximized their training with the equipment they had available to them. Mo has a gift of creating exercises for “hard to reach muscle groups” using equipment outside what it was originally intended for.
He’s also shown different ways to use resistance bands for training. For many years, McCohn mostly used bands for basic resistance moves and stretching. After Mo started, it became a common thing to turn basic moves into exceptional ones by adding resistance bands.
Even though Mo is not loud and ra-ra, he still has lots of enthusiasm, and he loves to have fun even if he looks a little silly in the process.
It is uncommon for someone so young to be so good at training. Working at McCohn Muscle and helping the diverse group of people that train here has helped Mo develop his skills in coaching, his ability to deliver challenging workouts, and his voice in the fitness industry.
Even while training mornings and evenings at McCohn Muscle, and sprinting the home stretch of his Public Health degree at Ohio State, Mo hasn’t lost his passion for the pump. After attending the IDEA World Fitness Convention for the first time in Anaheim, CA, Mo stayed in Cali and worked out at the legendary Gold’s Gym on Venice Beach.
Q. McCohn told Mo one time that he would break down walls in the fitness industry. We’re not saying that he’s a dangerous force, but there wasn’t anything on the news about earthquakes in California this year until Mo went out there.
It’s important to know that Mo has had his challenges like the rest of us. He wasn’t born on swoll. He did not just show up with six packs abs and cuts in his legs. He was a small, skinny dude that had a hard time gaining weight. He made the decision to be disciplined with his training regimen and nutrition, and that’s why he’s on the level his is today. Just like he made the decision to take action, you can do it too.
Mo, we appreciate all the gifts and good energy you bring to McCohn Muscle, and the strides you make to for the best team of personal trainers in Columbus. Hopefully we will continue to build on this momentum for many years to come.
Five years later……she’s earned Client of the Month again!
Jess has been working with the best trainers in Columbus since February 2013. When she started she was over 200lbs, and 40% body fat. After training hard for over a year she earned McCohn Muscle Client of the Month- June 2014. She dropped 8lbs, 6.5% body fat and improved her 1-mile run time by four minutes. You can read more about her first success story here:
https://qmccohn.blogspot.com/2014/06/mccohn-muscle-client-of-month-june-2014_18.html
There was a lengthy amount of time after her accomplishments where Jess was training to stay fit and healthy, but wasn’t locked all the way in on her nutrition. We all know what that’s like. She also was not getting pushed to be her best and receiving inspiration from her coach like she should have.
So that took us back to the drawing board starting with Gameplan 2019. In January, almost 30 McCohn Muscle members signed up for their “gameplan.” They met with Q. McCohn for an hour or more to go deep and write down goals, the amount of time they wanted to achieve them by, the action steps they would take to get there, and an affirmation that they could accomplish it.
Then they got to work!
For Jess, consistency is the name of the game. She set a goal to lose 10lbs by the end of March, and she dropped 15lbs. She also had a goal to cut another 10lbs by the end of June, and she hit that mark before the month of May was over. Overall she’s down 22lbs, 3% body fat, and 4 inches. Besides the stronger legs and less pain in her joints, Jess has enjoyed her improved cardiovascular endurance.
Q. McCohn says that his favorite part of Jess’s journey was the day before her birthday, at his wedding. He walked across the room to pay Jess a compliment after noticing her in a pretty blue dress. She told him that she’s had the dress for 10 years and had never worn it. She cut the tags off it that morning.
There is still more work to do. Jess isn’t going to quit now, but she deserves the recognition for not being average. The average person doesn’t follow through with the health and fitness plans they make after the new year. The average person does not train with McCohn Muscle for over six years, and the average person will give up after setbacks and become complacent. Jess is still striving for overall health and fitness improvement. Congratulations Jess on being McCohn Muscle’s first 2x Client of the Month.
Mo has handled a lot of Jess’s training in 2019. Props to you both. Teamwork makes the dream work.
